Apologize, apologize! : a novel about the family that puts the personality in disorder

SUMMARY: Cinematically vivid with heartstopping dialogue, Apologize, Apologize! is an extraordinary debut about a family that puts the personality in disorder.Welcome to the world of the fantastic Flanagans; a wildly eccentric Massachusetts clan that is both blessed and afflicted with an inexhaustible reservoir of old money, unwavering subversive charm – and a veritable chorus of dogs. At the centre of this maelstrom is sensible Collie Flanagan, first-born son and heir to his grandfather’s publishing fortune, whose easy life is shattered by the outcome of a casual afternoon outing. Affecting, funny and wise, this is a rollicking story packed with characters that are a delight to get to know, and are impossible to forget.Excerpt:My name is Collie Flanagan. Ma chose the name Collie after re-discovering the books of Albert Payson Terhune, the guy who wrote Lad: A Dog.Pop swore she read him throughout the pregnancy hoping to give birth to a puppy. During my baptism a fight broke out at the altar when the priest objected to me being named after a breed of dog, saying there was no St. Collie and Ma told him there damn well should be and Pop announced that maybe I’d be the first.At Andover they called me Lassie. That was fun. Apologize, Apologize! takes us into the perversely charmed world of the Flanagans and their son, Collie (who has the questionable good fortune to be named after a breed of dog). Coming of age on Martha's Vineyard, he struggles to find his place within his wildly wealthy, hyper-articulate, resolutely crazy Irish-Catholic family: a philandering father, incorrigible brother, pigeon-racing uncle, radical activist mother, and domineering media mogul grandfather (accused of being a murderer by Collie's mother). It is a world where chaos is exhilaratingly constant, where money is of no object. And yet it is a world where the things Collie wants-understanding, stability, a sense of belonging-cannot be bought for any price. Through his travails, we realize what it really means to grow up and also to grow into one's family: finding ways to see them anew, to forgive them, and to be forgiven in turn. In prose that is lively, humorous, and brilliant throughout, Elizabeth Kelly gives us the dysfunctional-family novel to end all dysfunctional-family novels, finding the comedy and pathos in her characters' struggles, and showing beautifully how a family's love can be as trying as it is true. "A novel about the triumphs and tragedies of the dysfunctionally rich"--Provided by publisher